“Okay, we are connected and ready to go!” Milward Beaudry said after hooking up the last cords of the microphones and headsets to their power supplies.
The three MCCC students took their positions on the upper level of Monroe High School’s gym and picked up their headsets and microphones, getting straight to work as Monroe’s varsity girls basketball team began to play.
Ben Fleming, Garrison Diehl, and Andrew Hoppert are Beaudry’s Advanced Radio Lab III students. Their job consists of broadcasting local basketball, hockey, and football games for Monroe County on MCCC’s radio station, Dream 97-5, WYDM.
“I enjoy seeing my students get excited about broadcasting the games,” Beaudry said.
Beaudry has been teaching radio and television broadcast at MCCC since 2003. This is the first semester that a radio communications course is focusing on sports.
“We are working with Monroe Public Schools to cover their sporting events,” Beaudry said.
Ben, Garrison, and Andrew are enjoying their experiences broadcasting the local sports games.
“It’s just fun,” Ben said before the game. “This is one of my favorite things to do.”
Ben has been taking communications classes at MCCC since he started in the Fall of 2008. He thinks this will be his last semester at MCCC, and is considering transferring to Eastern Michigan University to continue studying broadcast.
For Garrison, going into broadcast journalism has been a dream of his for a long time. He began taking broadcast courses last fall, when he started at MCCC. He has enjoyed the classes and made new friends as well.
Along with broadcasting Monroe High’s basketball games, Garrison also does games at SMCC for fun and the extra experience. He plans on pursuing a career in broadcast journalism.
Andrew has been involved with Dream 97-5 since his sophomore year at Monroe High School. So far he has broadcast four seasons of football and is in his third season of broadcasting basketball games.
Students who are interested in trying out their broadcast skills can get a feel for the job without taking a communications class by joining MCCC’s Broadcasting Club.
“The club helps promote events going on at the college and in the community,” Beaudry said.
Beaudry also said that the club allows students to explore broadcasting and see if it is something they would like to do. Club members will get to be on the air and do remote broadcast, but have limitations to what they can do.
Students interested in radio or television broadcasting courses or who are interested in joining the broadcasting club can contact Milward Beaudry at mbeaudry@monroeccc.edu.
